Surface science emerged in the 1960s with the development of reliable ultrahigh vacuum apparatus, providing exact structures of surfaces of metal single crystals, information about their compositions, and relationships between surface structure and composition and catalytic reaction rates. Catalysis, the acceleration of a chemical reaction by a catalyst (substance), provided much of the driving force for the early development of surface science.

As surface science continues its rapid development, this book illustrates how it is still driven by the challenges of catalysis and how both theory and scanning tunneling microscopy have forcefully emerged as essential tools. It is also evident how surface science continues to serve as the foundation of catalytic science.

This is a compendium written by leading surface scientists presenting an incisive assessment of up-to-date theoretical and experimental results constituting the foundation of fundamental understanding of surface catalysis.

This paperback edition is adapted from the serial Advances in Catalysis, Volume 45, ISBN: 0-12-007845-7.

COVERAGE INCLUDES:
Dynamics of reactions at surfaces on time scales ranging from 10-13s to 103s
Density functional theory of adsorption and surface chemical reactions 
Catalysts in action: atomic-resolution STM images elucidating elementary reactions on surfaces
Adsorption energetics and bonding: femtomole calorimetry and first-principles theory
Active sites on oxide catalysts: from single crystals to powders
Model supported catalysts: metal particles on well-ordered oxide layers 
Vibrational spectra of reaction intermediates on catalyst surfaces by sum frequency generation